By JORGE "Ka Oris" MADLOS Spokesperson National Democratic Front of the Philippines-Mindanao

We join the whole Filipino people in congratulating the New People's Army and in celebrating its 42nd founding anniversary. We salute all the revolutionary martyrs and heroes in Mindanao and the whole country who unselfishly offered their lives in the pursuit of our people's national freedom and democracy!

NPA Guerilla Fronts in Mindanao have increased from 39 in 2009 to 44 at present, less than half of which are company-sized fronts. Additional NPA platoons and companies have also been formed. As a Red army under the guidance of the Party enjoying widespread mass support, the NPA in Mindanao continues to reap victories.

In the year 2010 alone, the NPA has launched 200 tactical offensives, seized around 200 high-powered firearms, and annihilated over a battalion of enemy troops. In the first quarter of 2011, the NPA in Mindanao has launched more than 50 tactical offensives, confiscating almost 40 assorted firearms, 22 of which were high-powered rifles, annihilating a company and wounding around 50 enemy troops.

As organizers, the NPA in Mindanao has significantly contributed to the 10% increase in the number of barrios covered in the whole island; the 12% increase in organized masses under the different revolutionary mass organizations; the establishment of revolutionary organs of political power; and the formation, expansion and consolidation of alliances.

As the real people's Army, it contributed greatly in the struggle for genuine agrarian reform. Hundreds of thousands of people have benefitted from it in the forms of: reduction of rent of both land and farm implements; reduction of usury; increase in the wages of farm workers; increase in the prices of agricultural products; the establishment of cooperatives and the exchange of labor-power; raising the productivity of farmers; and the launching of health, cultural and other mass-oriented campaigns. It has also defended the environment against wanton logging, mining and destructive agri-business plantations.

As fighters for a just and lasting peace, it has shown its high sense of discipline and political maturity in the strict observance of the 25-day reciprocal ceasefire from December 16 to January 3, and from February 15 to February 21. In spite of the 42 counts of provocative ceasefire violations of the GPH mercenary forces in Mindanao, these peace-loving, brave NPA men and women humbly held their fire in abeyance of the ceasefire and in creating a mutually favorable atmosphere for the GPH-NDFP peace talks.

In Mindanao and in the whole country, we have clearly frustrated the brutal onslaught of OBL 1 and OBL2 of the US-Arroyo regime and have grown stronger despite extreme difficulties. However, it is not just a question of frustrating Oplan Bayanihan nor of just getting stronger, but, more importantly, of growing in leaps and bounds, if we have to fully attain the requirements for our advance.

We are in the process of fulfilling these revolutionary tasks in the midst of an ever worsening global crisis of imperialism and the chronic crisis of our semi-feudal and semi-colonial society, exacerbated by the recent local and international calamities and by the strife in Middle Eastern and North African countries. The deodorized image of the US- Aquino regime, together with its US COIN-inspired Oplan Bayanihan, cannot hide nor appease the misery and the restlessness of the broad masses who are evermore subjected to intensifying exploitation and oppression.

Not even the "positive" statistics of social surveys can conceal the regime's own burgeoning version of corruption, its shabby handling of OFW repatriation, Noynoy's indulgence in luxury cars, his regime's inaction against parasitic oil companies, its treasonous puppetry to imperialists that trample our sovereignty, plunder our natural resources and degrade our environment in the name of super-profit, in connivance with the local exploiting classes.

The "human rights, peace and development" tag of the rehashed Oplan Bayanihan cannot help veil the brutality of the regime. In less than a year in office, state security forces have already committed 40 extra-judicial killings, 5 enforced disappearances and 27 illegal arrests. Compare this to the nine-year record of the US-Arroyo regime's 1,206 extra-judicial killings and 206 enforced disappearances, brace for a bloodier reactionary regime in the next five years.

Indeed, this situation is most favorable as we strive to fulfill the fighting tasks of the five year program set by our Party Central Committee. On top of these colossal tasks is our political will and determination to fight and overcome all odds. Let us set aside all pessimism, maintain our initiative at all times, and be flexible and creative in the midst of this fluid guerilla war.

We have to master the art of people's war as did our Chinese and Vietnamese brothers when they crushed their imperialist and local enemies. We have to rely on the boundless potentials of the masses by launching the anti-feudal struggle, achieving economic gains, and making this a tangible motive for raising the fighting political and ideological consciousness of the masses, broadening and strengthening our mass bases, expanding and consolidating the revolutionary mass organizations, building the people's organs of political power, and mobilizing the masses in their thousands for armed struggle. This full blown anti-feudal mass movement, complimented by the open legal anti-fascist and anti-imperialist struggle in the urban areas, shall be our vast source of new Party recruits and cadres to completely fulfill our Party organizational requirements.

Be daring in launching widespread and intensive tactical offensives on the basis of an ever widening and deepening mass base, and combat all forms of conservatism. All NPA units must maintain their combat readiness, meticulously accounting all possible military targets, seriously conducting political work among the reactionary forces, diligently undertaking mass work to organize the people's militias and mobilize the masses, prepare the rear, the staging and the routes for our attacks and retreats, including logistical, technical and other requirements.

With utmost determination to advance and a firm grasp of our tasks, it is possible to march on with the nationwide completion of the strategic defensive stage, moving on to the next strategic stage of our people's war in the next few years!